Sins of the Mother

Having followed Zecora into the Everfree and to her place of residence, I was told to wait outside while she retrieved a box. She soon returned with it on her back and a look of great concern on her face, but she released it to me nonetheless. I then hurried back to the castle with my prize in tow and some warning about the path I was taking ending badly or something.

Now I was sat at my desk with the box before me. I could hear something like a low pulsing, much like a heartbeat, coming from within. I reached out with my hooves and placed them against the lid, intending to open the container, but something in my gut told me that if I did that i’d come to regret it.

Shaking the voice of reason from my mind I lifted the lid and let the sound of the magic within free, let it roam around the room searching for a partner; a host. It soon found me and my ears were filled with the heartbeat. No, my very body was filled with the heartbeat as it matched its rhythm to my own.

It begged me to pick up the stone, to hold it in my hooves like I would a lover. It cried out for a master, for a partner and a friend. I lowered my right hoof into the box and placed it against the stone, as though to console it.

Then it bit me.

The stone reacted as soon as I made contact and seemed to latch onto me, refusing to let go no matter how much I insisted. Extracting my hoof again, my previously black hoof walls had now become red as blood and seemed to course with magic.

Within my mind I saw Nightmare Moon looking back at me as the tunnel tried to pull her away, heard her tell me she’d come for me then five years pass and I banish myself to the planet with hate boiling within me for what my mother had done. The stone latched onto this feeling of hate and only served to make the emotion grow to the point of forcing me to change into Nightmare Eclipse without expelling my light magic.

With a roar that would scare the mightiest of dragons, I let out as much of my frustrations and rage as I could; my mane and tail firing out like a fire out of control. Galloping out of the room, I took flight as soon as I was clear on the balcony and soared up into the sky before circling around on the castle itself. I had to get rid of this frustration and channeling it into black magic would be easiest.

Levelling my horn towards the ruins of my mother’s old home, I let the black magic course through my every being and up into the channels of my magical instrument. The stone seemed to catch on and automatically cast a pair of seals beneath my hooves for me to stand on; which after realising this, I did.

Now standing above what I figured was the main ballroom, my horn coursing with black magic began to write a neutral time spell which set about undoing the time gathered onto the castle. Nothing happened at first, but as the clock rolled backwards bits and pieces of the ruins began to shift in place until they began to move and rise back up into their original place.

Soon the entire castle had been restored to it's former glory, each stone securely in place and magically bound to its position in space. With this, I felt my rage burn down to embers and the wrath stone in me calmed to a dull thumping; the sound of my own heartbeat.

The seals beneath my hooves faded away and I spread my wings to control my fall, soon landing on a freshly restored balcony to enter into the castle ballroom.

My shoes clicked against the bright white tile of the floors and my entrance was marked by the eruption of white flames in enchanted torch sconces.

Then my face went cold and I could feel a sweat coming on suddenly. The coldness in my face quickly spread through the rest of my body and the last thing I saw was the world going sideways as I lost consciousness.

~~~

“So, what do you think? Think he’s alright?” a voice echoed in the back of my mind. The voice itself wasn’t so much as a voice as it was I could feel the words themselves, disembodied from a voice.

“I haven’t the foggiest idea.” Another set of words replied. “It looks like a regular case of magical burnout, but this one’s case looks much more severe.”

“What about that red thing in his body? What do you make of that?” The first set of words inquired. Slowly they were taking on a voice and this one sounded feminine.

“That… Yeah…” The second set, becoming male, replied with concern. “I have no idea what that is. It could be anything from alicorn physiology to some kind of disease.”

“Can you tell it’s it’ll be hazardous to his health?” the female asked hopefully. Her words seemed to suggest a familiarity to me that would be exclusive to us. Mother, sister or lover; I couldn’t quite make it out yet.

“At this point all we can do is wait and see what happens.” The stallion sighed in defeat. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get back into town before dark.”

“Of course, thank you doctor.” The female’s voice suggested a faint smile, a faint ray of hope for my recovery. I still had no idea who she was though. “It’s okay. You’ll be okay. You’ll recover and you’ll rule the world.” she whispered into my ear, stroking my face with a hoof. This lulled me back into darkness.

~~~

With fragments of memories from the last time I had woken up, I cautiously cracked open an eye to check my surroundings. It looked like my room; black red and silver, but something about it felt off.

Like how it looked like my room in the moon castle.

Bolting upright I let my head turret around as I examined my environment in greater detail and sure enough, everything was just as I’d left it on the moon when i’d gone to the planet.

Keeping as silent as I could, I crawled out of bed and nearly collapsed to the floor when my hooves hit the dark red carpet. With as quiet of a groan as I could manage I lifted myself up straight and stealthily snuck around my own room, checking to see what level of detail my captors had gone to into designing this obvious cage.

“What is going on here?” I whispered as I pulled open one of my dresser drawers and extracted my old house coat to wrap around myself and keep warm. It even had my scent on it. “What am I doing on the moon?”

Pushing the bedroom doors open with my wings -my magic still hadn’t recovered fully so I was left without telekinesis- I poked my head out into the hallway, the very empty hallway, and began the familiar walk towards the kitchen.

Passing by empty corridors and dark passages, neither of which bothered me all that much given my previous experience with true isolation, I stepped into the kitchen and the scent of my own cooking wafted through my nostrils. Pizza. The smell of it drove my mind back to the day that I banished myself to the planet; this was my last meal on the moon.

Stepping up to the wood burning oven enchanted to not actually burn wood but run off pure magic, I gazed into the flames at the greyscale pizza slowly gaining colour as it cooked.

“How did I get back here?” I wondered aloud as I pulled a glass of cold water from the fridge dispenser. Downing the entire glass in one go, I set the glass down beside the sink with a sigh and a cold breath and examined the rest of the large room. The black and white tiles below me looked more pale than I remembered but I suppose the atmosphere and level of light coming in from the windows across the hall could have that effect on colours.

The walls themselves looked ruined, falling apart at seams and cracking along edges. I never did get around to actually fixing the place up since I was expecting to leave it all behind today…

“Hello?” I called out, coughed and tried again. “Hello! Is anypony here?” I stepped out into the hallway again and this time aimed for the grand hallway which, if I felt so inclined, would lead me to the exit to the surface of the moon itself.

Passing through the archway into the grand hallway, the place felt truly empty like it had for all that time before i’d gone away.

Pressing my face against the pressurized glass of the grand entrance doors, I let my eyes wander out over the grey of the moon surface beyond and shook my head. Whoever took me either went to ridiculous lengths to make me believe I was actually on the moon, or somepony powerful enough to do so had actually sent me back.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” the female voice from before exclaimed from behind me. “How do you feel?” she asked as I turned to face my captor.

“Confused.” I answered, taking in the appearance of a bedazzled griffon female. She was clad in what looked like some kind of battle armour with a helmet hanging off one of her hips. “Who’re you and what’re we doing here? Why have you taken me?” I demanded, growing more and more bold despite my weakened state.

“Relax, sire. I mean you no harm. I work for a group who wants to see your plan come to fruition.” the griffon replied, holding her talons up in surrender as she explained herself. “We’d been watching you since your arrival on Equus and we quickly learned of your intent for revenge against the royalty.”

“So what am I doing here?” I demanded again, at least stopping my approach to sit down and catch my breath. “Why does it appear that I’m on the moon and how did you recreate the castle so well?”

“Like I said, my employers have been watching you for quite some time.” the female smiled warmly as she descended the grand staircase to stand before me. “Now if you’ll permit me, sire, I request that you return to bed and regain your strength.”

“Stop calling me sire. I haven’t been crowned.” I ordered and with a groan, stood and let the griffon pick me up and place my body her on her back between her significantly larger wings.

“Be that as it may, I have been ordered to refer to you as a highness for preparation of your reckoning.”

“My what now?” I would’ve glared at the creature that now carried me but as she walked me to my room on her back, all I could do was sigh and feel her ridiculously powerful muscles moving around beneath me.

“Your reckoning. It’s what my employers call you ascending to the throne of Equestria and banishing Celestia, Luna and the Harmony Bearers to the stars.”

“How do you know that? I haven’t told that to anypony.” I demanded, fighting to escape and return to the floor but the large wings acted as a barrier and kept me in place.

“No pony, no. You did however tell a certain creature of Chaos, who relayed the message to my employers.” she explained, making me roll my eyes at the memory of talking with Discord.

“Okay, okay. Let’s stop a second.” I requested. The griffon obliged and pulled me off her back and stood me before her.

“Yes?” she looked as though ready to rip open her own stomach if I so ordered her to do so.

“Introductions. Who’re you, who’s your employers and who else is here?”

“Oh, of course. My apologies for forgetting. My name is Georgia Steelwing, at your service.” Georgia replied before giving a deep bow, her beak almost hitting the floor with eyes closed.

“Okay, Georgia, ignoring the really strange name, who’re your employers and what’s your job for them?”

“I work for a group calling themselves Dark Eclipse who’re intent on ensuring that your plan to take the throne and rule not only Equestria but the rest of the world. I work as an indentured servant for them and as such, I have been ordered to serve you till I draw my last breath. Should you so desire, I will self terminate and another will take my place.” Georgia bowed again, this time keeping her head down until I manually lifted it with my wing.

“You’re… you’re a slave?” I looked at her incredulously. “What.. how’d that happen?”

“We prefer indentured servant, my king. I was bred into it if that’s what concerns you. I come from a long line of serving griffons, all of whom have served kings and queens in the past. We are bred, taught proper behavior and then sold to whoever has need of our talents. My father worked for Queen Schatten of the Dragons and my mother worked for a prince in Saddle Arabia. My grandparents all have worked for royalty of some kind so I assure you that I have serving royal lines in my blood.” Georgia smiled kindly and after offering, placed me back on her back again and continued the walk to my room.

“But, you’re… you’re a slave! There’s no good way of putting it, you’re a slave!” I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that there was still slavery in the world. “Has any of your… lineage worked in Equestria?”

“Not in the last thousand years, no sire. They have long outlawed the practice of owning us.” Georgia explained and this had me at least breath a sigh of relief. “I believe Princess Luna was the last to make use of our services before she was banished a thousand years ago.” And the nerves caught back up again.

“My mother owned one of you?” I let my jaw hang open in disbelief. Entering into my room I was assisted to my bed by Georgia.

“Oh no, she owned many more of us than just one. Records indicated that she had an entire flock of us under her ownership.” Georgia replied as though she had just told me the sky was filled with stars as she tucked me into bed.

“But, haven’t you thought about freedom?”

“What would I do with it? I come from an extremely long line of service and i’ve been in service for my entire life. I don’t know anything else.” Georgia shrugged back and removed herself from my bedside.

“Okay, fine. A couple more questions before you go.”

“Of course, your highness, anything.”

“Are we still on Equus or are we on the moon?”

“We are on the planet you call Equus, yes.” Georgia replied simply.

“Okay, then why did the Dark Eclipse build the moon castle? Why not just move me back to my room in the Everfree Castle and prevent this confusion?”

“Like I said, owning an indentured servant is illegal in Equestria so we had to move you in order for me to be able to serve you while you recover.” Georgia explained again, this time sitting down to get comfortable.

“Okay, then where was I moved to? Where are we?” I sat up in bed and rested my head against the headboard.

“We are currently in a castle built into the side of Aconcagua Mountain west of Equestria.” Georgia replied, pulling a map for me from my desk.

“Aconcagua Mountain? But that’s…” I let my mind go through the information in my head. “Thats a good couple thousand kilometers away from the Equestrian border! There’s literally three countries between here and Equestria!” I exclaimed as the map was set down before me in my lap. “Why’d we have to come way the hay out here?”

“Because as I’m told, those three countries are Equestrian controlled so the servitude laws apply there as well.” Georgia replied, removing the map to place it back on my desk. “Now, if you’ll forgive my behaviour, no more questions. You need to sleep and regain your strength.”

“Right, yeah. Sure.” I muttered, slinking back down into my covers and shut my eyes as Georgia killed the lights and took up guard outside my doors.

~~~

Three days later

~~~

“Good morning, your highness.” Georgia announced, pulling the curtains open in my room to let the light reflect off the mountain snow and into my room. The illusion of being on the moon was just that, a complicated illusion spell cast by the Dark Eclipse mages who remained unseen. They were the ones responsible for ensuring that all the magical devices in the castle remained active, since Equestria was the main country of magic.

“Uhhhnn, try again in half an hour.” I requested groggily, pulling the covers over my face to shield myself from the blinding light.

“You said that half an hour ago.” Georgia replied firmly but cautiously. She quickly learned I could be an asshole in the morning if woken abruptly.

“Dammit, fine!” I groaned and tried cracking my eyes open under the blankets, letting myself adjust to the light and actually wake up. “What’s going on today anyways?”

“Today, my lord, you meet the rest of the servants under your care.” Georgia replied as she prepared a set of black and red steel shoes similar to the ones i’d seen my mother wear when she visited me in the Everfree Castle. I’d also been given a collar similar to hers with my butt print branded onto it’s surface to wear in place of a crown.

“Oh good, I was wondering who was doing my laundry in my absence.” I muttered while rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Stepping into my ensuite bathroom, I emerged a couple minutes later feeling at least somewhat refreshed. “Well, where’re we going first?”

“Kitchen, my lord. First meet your kitchen staff while they make you breakfast. After that everyone else has gathered in the main hall.” Georgia replied as she lowered a wing for me to hop up onto her back to ride.

“How many griffons do I have?” I asked in concern. I still hadn’t adjusted to the fact that I had even one slave so having even more was starting to irritate me.

“Just me, my lord. All the others work directly for Dark Eclipse. You’ll also meet them after breakfast.” Georgia explained as she took off at a light run down the halls to the kitchen.

“Oh good, was getting irritated at the idea of having more than one slave…” I sighed in defeat. “And now i’ll get to ask some questions of your bosses.”

“Correction, you’re my boss. I was merely bought and paid for by the group and given to you as a gift in return for your destiny.” Georgia remarked as she slid to a halt, using her wings as airbrakes before the kitchen doors. “My lord, may I introduce the kitchen staff.” she announced as the entire griffon kitchen staff bowed to me all at once, as though choreographed.

“Hi, thanks for your hard work.” I waved nervously and chuckled just the same. “Good job with the meals over the last few days, keep it up.”

“Yes sir, thank you sir!” The head chef grinned and bowed. “Now, what can we make you for breakfast?”

“Uhm… surprise me. Something I can eat on the go. Georgia and I are going to make a stop in the library before we hit the grand hallway so maybe try and have one of the servers find us in either location when foods ready.” I requested and silently ordered the griffon below me out of the room.

“Of course, sire.” The head chef bowed again and turned to his subordinates, yelling something as the doors swung shut behind us.

“What business have you in the Library?” Georgia inquired as she took off in a run towards the aforementioned space.

“It has the best acoustics of the castle.” I explained as I fired up my horn and summoned my guitar in it's usual settings.

“You can play the guitar, sire?” Georgia noted in surprise as I turned onto my back, resting against the lower portion of her neck to keep still.

“Yep. Got bored a couple years back and decided to try and learn one of these instruments.” I remarked and started up the acoustical version of With or Without You again as Octavia had been on my mind for the last couple days.

Georgia slowed to a walk as she listened to the music, to the sound of my voice as I sang across time and space to Octavia. I could imagine that she was playing and singing the same song at the same time, or at least I could hope.

As soon as we entered into the library, the sound seemed to reach out into the room and fill every single possible corner of the room. My voice did the same and echoed throughout without distorting the sound.

With Georgia standing in the middle of the room and me resting back to back with her, I noticed a couple library staff appear from the shadows to watch and listen through to the end of the song where they disappeared into the woodwork again.

“You sound like you’re singing to someone.” Georgia noted after the last note drifted away.

“I suppose I was, yeah. I’ve got a mare waiting for me in Equestria and we kinda got together over that song.” I replied and switched to a couple random chords, mostly just plucking noise while I fought for a song to appear in the chaos of my hooves. After a minute of incomprehensible noise, I simply gave up and let the guitar shimmer off into infinity.

“Is that all?” Georgia inquired, trying to be helpful. “Was there anything else you required from the library?”

I sat in silence for a moment, trying to think of anything. “Nope, that’s it. Let’s go to the grand hallway and meet everyone.”

“Of course, sire.” Georgia tried to bow her head to my request but with me resting against her neck she did the best she could without making me fall off.

With my “indentured servant” taking off at a casual walk I watched as the hallways flew by in reverse, oddly enough giving me a different perspective on the castle. One always sees the world going forwards, but it was certainly interesting to see it going backwards.

“Sire, I suggest that you enter on your own accord. Riding on my back would give the appearance of weakness before the Dark Eclipse.” Georgia announced, stopping before a set of doors into a tiny secondary set of stairs and the larger double doors to the grand hallway.

“Right, yeah. Don’t wanna appear weak in front of the troops.” I sighed and with a following groan, rolled off the powerful back muscles and onto my hooves with a clack. “Shall we?”

“Absolutely. Allow me,” Georgia requested, taking hold of the door handles and pulled hard. The hinges resounded with a solid, echoing screech as the door slowly swung open before me. I could already see a rather large congregation of hooded ponies already kneeling before the stairs where I was apparently going to be standing behind a trio of significantly older looking creatures; one a pony who I was unsure of the sub-breed, a very large, very imposing Griffon in black and red steel armour, and most oddly enough, A dragonling with bright yellow scales.

“Presenting his Highness,” Georgia bellowed as I slowly entered into the large room and the rows upon rows upon rows of hooded creatures behind extended down the length of the hallway. There were at least fifty rows, each twenty creatures across.

“Eclissi, son of Nightmare Moon!” Georgia finished and the entire congregation either bowed, or deepened their bow upon my arrival.

The eery thing was how silent everyone was; I swear I could hear my own blood pumping through my veins had I not been moving, it was that quiet. Set up on the halfway landing of the grand staircase, outlined in my quickly becoming royal decor of red and black, sat a rather large and plush throne lined with what looked like real leather.

“Where’d this come from?” I tilted the question and my head towards Georgia as I approached the throne. I had whispered the question only to her but with the existing silence already in the room, accompanied by the grandness of the hallway’s ability to echo, I may have just shouted it on the top of my lungs.

“A gift, your highness.” The dragonling replied with a flourishing bow. “To commemorate the Dark Eclipse’s oath to serve you until you ascend to the throne in Equestria.”

“I didn’t ask you.” I muttered and took a seat. As soon as I was comfortable -which didn’t take long with how stuffed the cushions were- a squadron of griffon kitchen staff swarmed me, setting up a table outlined in gold leaf and began setting up every sort of breakfast item I could think of and then some. “Uh,” I stared out at the spread before me. “Fruit first, I suppose.” I requested and a bowl of diced mixed fruits appeared before me with a silver fork next to it.

Turning to the waiting crowd before me with the fork in magical grasp and a melon speared through, “So, where do we begin?”

“My lord, if you’ll forgive me,” the griffon in combat armour placed a claw against his chest in a sort of salute. “Should we introduce ourselves?”

“Go for it.” I replied and popped the melon into my mouth. Honeydew.

“My lord, I am Gerald White. I command the entire griffon force you see behind me.” The aforementioned legion of griffons stood up as one and raised their heads for a moment before returning to a kneeling bow. Of the twenty columns, about seven columns had stood. I could only guess the other ones were ponies and dragons. “I’m also the one who had purchased and gifted you Georgia as your personal indentured servant. If you are not pleased with her capabilities, please speak to me and I shall have her replaced.”

“‘Kay.” I popped in a mouthful of maraschino cherries, banana slices and a couple orange slices. Tropical, especially for the current climates of the mountains.

“My lord,” the dragonling stood and gave her own salute before continuing. “I am called Vera and I lead the dragon army behind me.” Again, a third of the legion stood and raised their heads before kneeling again. “We are the ones responsible for maintaining the levels of magic in the castle as, aside from the ponies, we are the closest beings to magic.”

“Sure…” I’m not entirely sure how the short answers were going to help me maintain appearance, but frankly, I had some semblance of manners and as such, I’d prefer not to talk with a mouthful of fruits.

“My lord,” the pony spoke up and Vera kneeled once more. “My name is Camber and my forces are dedicated to your personal service, no matter the task. We are skilled in everything from search and recover to simple acts of restoring the vigor to your soul. Our females are also skilled in a variety of… Specialized tasks, should you require such things.”

“I probably won't, just saying.” I remarked as the herd behind Camber knelt back down again. “So, aside from me eating breakfast, what’s going on here? Why and I here in the first place?”

“Did Georgia not explain it to you?” Gerald inquired, glaring at the griffon behind me.

“Kind of. She said that you, Dark Eclipse, are bent on ensuring I complete my goals of banishing the Equestrian royalty and the Harmony Bearers to the stars. What I want to know is, why?” I leaned against the foreleg rest of the throne to let my stomach digest everything so far.

“We would see your quest in so that we may assist you to your rightful place on the throne. We believe that you would serve as a better monarch than Celestia and Luna, with our assistance of course.” Vera explained cordially and with a smile that hinted at something. What that something was, I had no idea.

“‘Kay. You understand that such an explanation suggests to me that you’d act as the true ruler, using me as a figurehead for whatever plans you have hiding in dark rooms.” I noted and pointed out a cup of tea to be poured for myself and Georgia.

“Yes, we understand this.” Camber spoke up. “We wish to assure you that that is not our goals. Truly, we stand behind you in your goals and we will recognize your authority upon your coronation. We are merely the agents to bring you to that end.”

“Uh huh.” I magically held the teacup out to Georgia, who looked at it curiously for a second before taking it gratefully.

“That being said, what would you have us do? We are eager to begin your crusade.” Gerald requested of me, almost sounding demanding in the process.

“Well, nothing is going to happen if I can’t get rid of the Elements of Harmony,” I began.

“So you wish for us to remove them for you?” Gerald looked eager for a potential fight.

“No no, I wanna do that myself. I want my mother to know that it was me who took out her precious weapons, all by myself. What I need from you all is to gather information on the remaining six Elements of Chaos. You will bring this information back to me and I will go out and retrieve them.” I ordered. A single, resounding thud of claws and hooves hitting chests echoed through the room in reply.

“But, sire.” Vera lifted a finger to break into my train of thought. “Would it not go faster and be a better use of resources if we brought you the Elements ourselves?”

“Normally yes. However I don’t know what would happen if your forces came into contact with the Elements. When I touched the stone of Wrath, it was absorbed into my body and I have no idea if it’s possible to remove it if I wanted to.” I explained, taking a sip of the black tea.

“Of course. We will see to it that none of our forces interact with the Elements.” Vera bowed with a fist over her scaled chest.

“Awesome. In the meantime, I want someone to go to Equestria and see what the state of affairs have become in my sudden disappearance. Don’t interact with anypony, I just want to know what’s happening with my friends and marefriend.” I requested, looking to Camber for this order.

“Yes, my liege.” Camber bowed his head in response.

“Gerald, your forces are the ones on protection duty, right? Come see me later on, I wanna chat in private.” I requested, pushing the table aside to stand. The entire room stood up once I had done so and after grabbing another bowl of fruits and berries along with my tea, I trotted from the room with Georgia behind me and aimed for nowhere in particular.

~~~

“Sire, what do you wish to speak with me about?” Gerald asked once he’d caught up. “You are excused.” he ordered of Georgia, but I held them both up with a wing.

“She can stay.” I argued, looking at Georgia as she turned to leave. “I want to know about what kind of protection your forces are capable of and what kind of weaponry they have at their disposal. I’m also curious about the armour choice.” I notd, looking over the steel plates hanging off the Griffon’s enormous body. Georgia was big, at least twice as big as I was, but Gerald stood a whole head and shoulders over her.

“Sire, I have legions who’ve trained in military practices their entire lives. They’ve trained to act as both silent guardians, keeping watch from the air as well as from the shadows on the ground. If you’d prefer a more… presidential treatment, I can have a squadron of my very best accompany you at all times.” Gerald explained with a grin. He was proud of his troops and it showed.

“Kay, let go with the silent guardian for now. I don’t like being… crowded.” I remarked, shuddering at the idea of standing in a tight group of really large birds.

“It will be done.” Gerald saluted with a fist to his chest. “In terms of weaponry, we have the finest blacksmiths in all of Griffonia working round the clock to forge the best steel for use in armour and armaments.”

“And those armaments are…” I sat down in the middle of the hallway, with Georgia staring out a nearby window at the mountain side.

“Everything from swords to battle axes. I’ve taken the liberty of having enough scythes made if you wished to have a sort of special ops unit who use your type of weapon.”

“Ehh…” I considered the idea, but couldn’t decide if I liked it or not. “Not right now. Have them distributed to whoever has training for them for now. What of armour?”

“We have recovered your Nightmare Armour from Everfree Castle and it’s currently being stored in your personal armoury. We’ve used it’s designs to create armours for our officers and specialists. I regret to inform you that we don’t have enough steel in Griffonia to provide armour to the lower ranks.” Gerald lowered his head with his apology, looking like he was going to kill someone for the lack of resources.

“Ehh, they’re disposable.” I shrugged and looked to Georgia’s armour. “What about Georgia? What are her capabilities for protection, weapon training and such?”

“Sire,” Georgia turned to reply once she heard her name. “I have been trained to use both one and two handed swords. I usually have a greatsword on my back and two twin swords on my hips, but with the location I don’t feel the need to carry weapons. I am also highly skilled in claw-to-claw combat, so there is no need for worry if someone does attack you.” Georgia replied with a smirk.

“And armour?” I raised an eyebrow to appraise her current outfit.

“I can wear all types, light, medium and heavy. I prefer light to medium armour, however.” Georgia explained, giving her attire a dusting off.

“‘Kay. Have Georgia made a set of medium weight armour like mine. I want the troops protecting me to be protected as best they can be, to their preferences. Use whatever resources you need for it, whatever it takes.” I ordered and stood up again. Georgia took to my side as Gerald excused himself to follow through on his orders.

“You seem to be taking to ordering us around quite well.” Georgia noted, hinting at a smirk. “I find it quite pleasing to see, sire.”

“Ehh, I might as well make use of them if they’re offering.” I shrugged casually. “Question, does this castle come with skis?” I grinned, looking out at the fresh powder on the mountain side. The mountain looked like it was placed in the absolute perfect place for skiing with a small basin at the base of the castle.

“I do not know. I’d have to ask around. I didn’t know you skied.” Georgia remarked, looking out the window with me.

“I don’t. I wanna start though, it looked fun in my books.” I smiled bemusedly and hopped up onto the window sill, pressing a hoof against the cold glass. “I’ve never experienced snow before, now that I think about it…”

“Then let me give you some advice, if I may.” Georgia leaned against a pillar of stone bricks, one leg crossed over the other. “Dress warmly. Even for a pony like yourself, the temperature up here can become ridiculously frigid quickly.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Could you have someone get me some appropriate clothing then? I’ll leave the specific details up to you.” I requested and hopped down from the window to continue walking, staff members stepping aside as I passed by them with a bow of the head. Now that i’d met them all, I noticed they were everywhere.